When we think about it, most of us know that vengeance isnt justice, because justice is what we want for ourselves and vengeance is what we wish on people we think dont deserve justice: criminals, homosexuals, the homeless, people of other races, people who have AIDS. To those who favor capital punishment, his case came to symbolize their frustrations with a legal system that allows lengthy appeals by a killer condemned to die. I want them locked up, or killed, to keep their guns out of my face and to save me the expense of hiring guards and turning my home into a fortress, which is what people in my social class had to do before there were prisons. In sum, God and nature get off the hook for apparently committing murders because we have no way of punishing either of them. Perspectives on Moral Responsibility on JSTOR But in a time when youngsters are murdering each other over athletic shoes, we can presume that many peoples love of life is so weak that the theory of deterrence hardly applies to them. [2] With Kenneth in jail, the remaining family members lived a migrant life around the San Joaquin Valley. When Roberts eldest sister was arrested for theft shortly after the familys arrival in California in 1962, she told of her fathers sexual abuse; he was convicted of being a sex offender and went to jail for eighteen months. This is the fourth in a series of essays inspired by the principles of A Course in Miracles. The death penalty exists so that we may know with absolute certainty that a criminal will never inflict pain and suffering on any other family ever again. All the hatred inside me totally disappeared. This is how you will learn the truth that will set you free, and will keep you free as others learn it of you. Schizophrenia was diagnosed. He spoke with a lisp and sat by himself talking to imaginary friends and fantasizing about visits from mystical Indians and flying saucers. "[10][11] Wilson then left without waiting for reporters' questions. In the simplest terms, we collectively want to kill those who kill. [15] That night, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a per curiam decision vacating the Ninth Circuit's stays and allowing the execution to proceed, by a vote of 72. She described Michael as sensitive and quiet, a boy just becoming interested in girls and excited about the prospect of a driver's license. One gets off ones idealistic cloud of spirituality and finds a way to make common-sense choices that will benefit the people who are truly innocent. After taking the boys to a deserted wash near the Miramar Reservoir, Harris shot the two boys four times each. spiritual way, and tell him I could forgive him because he was giving his life like that, accepting it like a man., When Harriss head rolled down to his chest, Clark reported feeling this rush of being at peace with myself. I can't help but think, 'Gosh, would we have grandchildren? The judge denied other requests by Harris sister, his lawyer, and a psychiatrist that they be allowed to remain with Harris on Monday night. WebRobert Alton Harris was gassed to death at sunrise on April 21, 1992, the first person to be executed by the state of California in twenty-five years. He quotes a confessed murderer who advises crime victims to forgive yourself for all the pain youve gone through. This is the sort of fuzzy pseudothinking that makes Rush Limbaugh rich. It was then that Mr. Baker learned that the robbery Harris appeals of his conviction went up and down the legal system, including seven trips to the U.S. Supreme Court. Societal adulthood is even tougher than Becker thinks. We believe that this will somehow deter violence, despite the lack of evidence to that effect. Needing a car, the Harris brothers spotted Baker and Mayeski and kidnapped them, planning to use the teenagers car for their robbery. They also dropped by to visit their father, who clubbed Robert in the head with a wrench. Convinced that Robert was conceived in an affair, Sgt. To his lawyers and closest friend, he is the product of a violently abusive childhood who, during a decade on death row, has grown into a The first hitch in the states plans for execution had come last night when a 9th Circuit judge delayed the execution based on late claims by Harris lawyers that they had new evidence that Harris younger brother, Daniel, had fired the first of eight shots that killed Baker and Mayeski. It was the most macabre experience of my life, said Michael Tuck of KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. Web1. Respondent Harris was convicted of a capital crime in a California court and was sentenced to death. His words are based on the 1991 film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey as "You might be a king or a little street sweeper but sooner or later you dance with the reaper.". In the last few years I have taken up a discipline of forgiveness, which means I have decided against vengeance as a guide. LAST SECOND DELAY OF EXECUTION MADE IT `TORTURE,` A hearing was scheduled in that case before U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel at 6 p.m. today. Daniel Harris claims that when he told authorities this, they threatened him with the death penalty if he made such statements at his brothers trial. SAN QUENTIN -- After an exhausting night of uncertainty and three last-minute legal delays, condemned San Diego murderer Robert Alton Harris was put to death at dawn today in Californias gas chamber. Copyright 19742023 The Sun. Mankins recalled that her friend's primary wish was to stay alive long enough to see Harris executed. Movies. A woman in the area where the families of Harris victims were sitting cried out: Oh God!. Pete Wilsons televised rejection Thursday of a clemency petition by Harris. Nor does the birth of an unwanted, soon-to-be-abused baby. Almost 14 years have passed since that afternoon when murder shattered the lives of two families. The execution ended Women who face the choice of whether to have one hold contradictory feelings of love, hope, and utter despair within them until one feeling rises up and they know what to do. A hearing is scheduled before U.S. District Judge Howard B. Turrentine at 9 a.m. today. Millers essay is an example of what I would call idiot compassion: the well-meaning inability to set limits on predators, disguised as spirituality. The minute I saw him, I had a real sick feeling, sister Barbara recalled of the picnic, in an interview two years ago. Criminal Procedure - The Robert Alton Harris Decision: Sharron, a bookkeeper, and Sam, a teacher, work for the San Diego City School District. We discuss his true crime history, his execution , and we eat his last meal. Nothing much had changed. The state formalizes this rage in impersonal and ritualized executions, but it is rage nonetheless. In Los Angeles on Friday, a lawyer for Harris held a news conference to urge Wilson to reconsider his decision. He would not have defended it with such exasperation had he not been moved to question it. The previous essays in this series are Back to the Real World [Issue 153], Climbing the Stone Face of Fear [Issue 164], and Homeless [Issue 166]. After thinking about his creation, the old man demanded to know: How could that bastard do that?, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Following his release he found work, married, and had a son. WebRobert Alton Harris, Petitioner, v. R. Pulley, Warden of the California State Prison At San Quentin, Respondent. Cases of murder and rape are so serious that it may be entirely appropriate to kill the perpetrators, not to get revenge on them or to deter anyone else, but simply to eliminate them. It is a choice they would prefer never to have to make. Last night in Sacramento from his Capitol office, Gov. [15] Later that evening, the Ninth Circuit entered a third stay blocking the execution while it reconsidered reimposing the lower court's temporary restraining order. A similar challenge to the constitutionality of the use of gas, raised in a case from Mississippi, was turned down by a federal appeals court in 1983. For this reason alone, not for vengeance or punishment, the death penalty will continue to be demanded until prison reforms have been so perfected that a criminal is no longer dangerous once his sentence is served. His mother had recently been put on parole for bank robbery. After a series of appeals and stays of execution, he was executed in San Quentin's gas chamber on April 21, 1992. Nothing unreal exists. It's an awful, terrible feeling.". For that is what Miller finally offers us, asking us to relinquish the world as we know it, in favor of a peaceful world that is presently beyond both our perception and our imagination.. A few minutes later, Harris second cousin, Rev. Enough is enough, Daniel Harris said in urging the execution. The investigation revealed that at 10:30 a.m. on July 5, 1978, the defendant and co Criminal. Harris, the murderer of two 16-year-old boys, made his first trip at 3:49 a.m., when he was strapped in a chair for 12 minutes. . Think of Anwar Sadat. Through the windows of the soundproof chamber, many of the forty-eight witnesses to the execution saw Harris mouth the words, Im sorry. Baker nodded his head sharply in acceptance of the apology. Harris was visited by several people Friday, including a brother, Randy, and a friend, writer Michael Kroll. [7] In 1975 while living in a trailer park in Imperial County,[2] Harris beat his brother Kens roommate, James Wheeler, to death, claiming he did so to protect the victim's wife; however, it was later determined that he beat the victim without provocation. He also discovered an artistic means of self-expression early in life, so he knew there existed a better channel for his energies than the repetition of the punishments doled out to him. Actually surrendering his belief in vengeance is a miracle he will have to induce himself. He knew vaguely that his biological father was a bad person--his mother had told him so. Execution Nears for First Man To Die in Calif. Gas Chamber in 23 In response, Harris attorneys filed a new lawsuit raising the same issues in a federal court in San Diego. She soon found a solution to her problems with Robert. The month that Robert turned 10, his father was deemed a sex offender and sent to Atascadero State Hospital for a year and a half. Death is not merciful either way. steve-baker Thus, forgiveness is an inherently paradoxical spiritual path. After crossing the chasm that forever separated them from the social contract, they found some kind of freedom outside the realm of conscience, outside the realm of society. He looked absolutely inhuman. Harris' death sentence was affirmed by the Supreme Court of California in 1981. In 1978, at age 25, Harris was released again, despite warnings from the Imperial County Sheriffs Department to parole authorities that Harris was in need of psychiatric attention.. Harris reserved special abuse for him. Robert and his brother Daniel, then eighteen, decided to rob a bank themselves. David Magris is the son of an Italian father and Puerto Rican mother who were unmarried at the time of his birth in 1948 in Vallejo, California. Millers example of the child who died of leukemia certainly is a different kind of death from the one that Robert Alton Harris dealt his victims. Just two hours before the Supreme Courts last order, Harris spent 12 minutes strapped into the gas-chamber chair before prison officials learned of the stay by Pregerson. For his last meal, he requested and was given a 21-piece bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, two large Domino's pizzas, a bag of jelly beans, a six-pack of Pepsi, and a pack of Camel cigarettes. Youve been hurt or no longer have someone you loved, so you feel robbed, cheated, and abandoned, and that makes you angry and afraid. WebRobert Alton Harris was an American murderer who was executed at San Quentin State Prison in 1992 for the 1978 murders of two teenage boys. WebRobert A Harris Collection: U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Birth: May 18 1909 Death: June 1 1990 Last residence: Haskell, Texas 79521, USA View the Record view all Immediate Family Holland Harris mother Fletcher Harris father J. Lester Harris brother Loyd B. Harris brother Julia L. Harris sister Jerold L. Harris brother Could things be different? He said it was too soon to know whether witnessing Harris death closed a horrible chapter in his life. People like Miller can teach and write only so long as the state has the power to crush thugs. Michael's murder, Sharron Mankins said, destroyed the inner peace the couple had found with each other. His victims were not responsible for his unhappy childhood and should not have paid with their lives for the irresponsibility of his parents. He especially liked to boil and eat uteruses, though he ate men as well as women. Unable to start the car, Robert Harris decided to steal another car in which two youthsJohn Mayeski and Michael Bakerwere eating lunch. He wanted to rob a bank. So we are really violated twice: once by the thug and a second time by the Jobs comforters who tell us how morally retarded we are for wanting to fight back. It did nothing to change him and made me into a sacrificial lamb. Further, seeing vengeance as the primary motivation for the death penalty grossly oversimplifies. In 1978, Robert Alton Harris and his brother, Daniel Marcus Harris, went to a fast food restaurant and abducted two teenage boys. For the simple fact that we cannot: God seems unreachable, unpunishable, the ultimate, invulnerable Boss in an unassailable Heaven. [15][17], On April 21, 1992, at 3:49a.m., Harris was strapped into the gas chamber. His wife Evelyn, one of 11 children from a poor Cherokee family in Oklahoma, took her first drink by age 8. You do somebody wrong in prison and theyre gonna do you the ultimate wrong. In such an environment, Magriss turnabout must necessarily be seen as an exception to the rule, if not an outright miracle. Robert Harris spent the next four years as a ward of federal reformatories. Robert Alton Harris - San Diego Murders - LiquiSearch Harris had a criminal record from a young age and was convicted and sentenced to death on March 6, 1979, after being charged with murder, auto theft, kidnapping, burglary, and bank robbery. After Robert shot A lot of misery would have been averted if the Nazi war criminals had been shot before they ever got power. Where is the criminals accountability in all of this? Robert Alton Harris (1953-1992) - Find a Grave Memorial We do not have the political will to cease serving as the number-one arms merchant to the world. The fascinating thing is that his face took on the features of a monster. ROBERT ALTON HARRIS There is a point at which someone is a hopeless case in terms of societys resources. David Magris took responsibility for his actions and regained his right to live. R. PULLEY, Warden, Petitioner v. Robert Alton HARRIS. And then I did.. This story was originally published in The San Diego Union-Tribune on April 21, 1992. D. Patrick Millers essay A Brutal Sadness [August 1993], for all its insight and tender heart, disturbs and angers me in exactly the same way. On July 5, 1978, Harris and his younger brother commandeered a car occupied by two 16-year-old boys, John Mayeski and Michael Baker, ordered them to drive to a remote area, then killed them. He left the house early the next morning with John Mayeski, also 16, one of his closest friends, to look for summer work. I saw guys who had committed suicide who were so determined and brutally sad that I was waking up in the middle of the night still smelling their blood., From 1981 until his release in 1985, Magris served as an inside coordinator for a study group on A Course in Miracles at San Quentin. While a priest held a Good Friday service, two Evangelical preachers recited biblical passages in support of their belief that God would endorse Californias first execution in a generation. (Barry Fitzsimmons/San Diego Union-Tribune). Harris was bound in handcuffs and a waist chain. Born prematurely at Fort Bragg, South Carolina, the fifth child of nine. Today Magris is married and lives not far from San Quentin. Harris was paroled in January 1978. BEING SYMPATHETIC TO BAD-HISTORY Violence might come to us at random, as Harris came to young Baker and Mayeski, and we would be unprepared to protect ourselves or avenge the deaths of the innocent. By Christmastime, the Harrises had their first run-in with the law in California. [4] In 1967, Evelyn abandoned Robert, then 14, in Sacramento and left him to fend for himself.